State Senators V. Susan Sosnowski, left, and Michael McCaffrey prepare to hear testimony about the state’s water supplies yesterday at the Committee on Environment and Agriculture.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE — On the back side of the popular Schartner Farms in Exeter, far from the road, the Schartner family avoided future water shortages by digging out a four-acre pond in 1990 that holds 13 million gallons of water. They use the water to irrigate their crops and to cool themselves with swims on summer evenings.

At the Wickford Flower and Garden Shop they bought several years ago, the Schartners used other water-saving techniques. Water drawn from the ground at 55 degrees by basement sump pumps cools a bank of refrigerator units. The 95-degree water leaving the refrigerator units is piped to tanks under the greenhouse, where it is used to water plants and wash trucks.

Another 43,000 gallons each year is collected from the roof of the garden shop and used to water flowers.

“I really believe we don’t have a water shortage in Rhode Island,” Richard Schartner, 60, told a panel of state senators. “We have a storage problem.”

Schartner was among the last witnesses to testify before two Senate committees that have spent the last two months gathering information about problems with supplies and demand for drinking water across Rhode Island.

The committees, headed by Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, and Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, now plan to have their staffs write a report and draft legislation that may target problems ranging from soaring summertime demand caused by suburbanites watering their lawns, to a water supply that is inadequate to support more economic growth at Quonset Point.

In two new water-related developments yesterday:

•The chief engineer of the Kent County Water Authority offered to solve shortages at Quonset by extending a new water main from the Route 2 commercial area and delivering water purchased from the Providence Water Supply Board. Such a move would require state legislation and state financial support, said Kent County’s Tim Brown. And he said it does press the limits of the Scituate Reservoir.

But right now, he said, Scituate is the only “game” in the state capable of supplying significant water, and it could do so much faster than new wells could be developed in the Big River Reservoir area.

•Also, a new Special House Commission to Study Water Uses and Distribution in Rhode Island held its inaugural meeting last evening. It elected House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, as chairman.

Fox said the stature of the other commission members shows how committed the House leadership is to solving the state’s water problems.

State Rep. Raymond J. Sullivan Jr., D-Coventry, who has chaired a special commission studying water problems in Kent County, was elected vice chairman. State Rep. Peter T. Ginaitt, D-Warwick, chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, was elected secretary.

Also on the committee are State Rep. Jan P. Malik, D-Warren, vice chair of the House Finance Committee; State Rep. John P. Shanley Jr., D-South Kingstown, and vice chair of the Environment Committee; State Rep. Peter F. Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, the House majority whip; State Rep. Amy G. Rice, D-Portsmouth, and State Rep. Carol Mumford, R-Scituate, senior deputy minority leader.

Fox said water use and water availability in Rhode Island has been taken for granted for too long. He said that the Scituate Reservoir now supplies 64 percent of the state, but “there’s never been any conversation about whether that’s the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do.”

He said there were no serious discussions last year of the ramifications of a bill that guaranteed water to Amgen Inc., over the objections of the Kent County Water Authority.

Sandra Whitehouse, an environmental-policy adviser to the House, showed the commission why there isn’t enough groundwater in the Hunt River aquifer to supply the planned expansion at Quonset Point.

“The Quonset Development Corporation says it needs 3.6 million gallons a day,” said Whitehouse. “Clearly, in the summer that’s not available.”

She said the commission needs to put in place strategies to better manage water so there doesn’t have to be individual legislation for new industrial users. The Water Resources Board, which oversees water suppliers, needs the ability to enforce water supply management plans, she said. And new water rates should be imposed to encourage less demand.

Fox scheduled more meetings, for March 28, April 11 and April 25, after House sessions. He said he hoped to come up with legislation by May to provide short-term solutions, while seeking “global” solutions next year.

The Senate committees yesterday also heard from a hydrologist who discussed data on groundwater and stream flows in Rhode Island, and an engineer who described the feasibility of desalinating sea water — he said it’s getting less expensive.

Ames Colt, chair of the Rhode Island Bays, Rivers and Watershed Coordinating Team, said Rhode Island doesn’t lack the resources to solve its water problems.

“We lack the public understanding and sustained political

plord@projo.com